CEO Tragedy

"Energy CEO McClendon dies in Oklahoma car crash, a day after indictment" reads the headline on 3/2/2016. Article here.

The CEO appears to have committed suicide although there's is no final verdict yet. Maybe he did violate antitrust laws, maybe he didn't. Dying one day after the indictment certainly makes him appear guilty. Lets just assume he was guilty and there are not hidden facts in this story, why did he try to rig the bidding process?

Perhaps, it's a shortcut to obtain more wealth? More power? This type of ethics breach may not be as far fetched to everyone as it seems. The temptation of money is great and the actual act of antitrust could just be from a casual remark. Imagine, gaining a few million dollars just from a chat with a fellow bidder which would then allow you to buy 10 new Lamborghini. Yes... all of which you can imagine to drive while sleeping in a PRISON CELL.

A life in prison might just be worse than dying. How long will the sentence be if he was tried and found guilty? It appears he did not want to wait to find the answer. There could of course be other factors that cause him to do such a thing. Let me not speculate further as it just happened and not all the facts are known.

This leads us to a tie in to this blog about financial independence. One must not fall into the trap of shortcuts and ethics breach in order to more firmly secure financial independence. There are plenty of white hat things you can do to increase your wealth the normal and legal way. Once you do those, it certainly FEELS like you're robbing everybody from the loads of cash rolling in.

No, you're not ACTUALLY robbing anyone at all. Merely making money in a strategic manner which so few people actually know, understand, or willing to put in the effort to do.

Rather than talk in generalities, let me point out a few examples where I FEEL like I robbed someone but didn't at all. It was just a gang busters financial transaction. Made out with hundreds without much effort on my part.

1. Checking account sign up bonus. $500 - Signed up, waited 3 months, and closed the account. Probably 2 hours of work and a bit of attention to timing on my part.

2. Dividend payouts at 7%. Every $10k yields $700/year. You need $10k of course but that's why money makes you more money.

3. Credit card points bonus on Citi Premier 50,000 pts equivalent to about $625 in travel dollars. I regularly take advantage of credit card sign up bonuses so this is a pretty regular occurrence. I think I average around $1000-2000 a year on sign ups without trying too hard.

4. Comparison shopping and shopping using cash back credit cards. Assuming you spend $20k/year on everything. 5% cash back of $20k is about $1000. 20-40% discount could be obtained if you shop smart and could amount to $4-8k in shopping smart. This of course means that everything you buy is a pretty awesome bargain. For me, a lot of times I only buy stuff at an awesome bargain. No, you don't go out and buy stuff you don't need, I'm buying stuff I normally use at those discounts. Sometimes I am even able to get things for 100% discount. No, I'm not stealing! I stack my gift card bonus I earn from store cards while also using the store sales.

All these may seem like chump change but it adds up pretty quickly when you go in increments of $500. With proper application of being frugal and earning residual income, you can almost cancel out your living costs!

 The exact details of how I get stuff for free, I'm going to save for a later post. It's a doozy.